First of all, you're using directories with long filenames (longer than 8 characters). This is BAD because it causes lots of confusion. Just make a D:\oldgames or something.

Second, for some reason in your example when you do `D:` to switch to the d: drive, the Z:\> prompt should change to D:\> but doesn't. Is this a typo?

Also, the `dir` command is your friend! Use it to see what's in the current directory so you know that you aren't doing something invalid.

Nope,..not a typo that is what it says.

Also concerning directories,...all of them need to 8 characters,..no spaces?
Like not only The one game ar located in which I had called DOS Games
but then individulal game folder too,..like Ultimas which in my given examle that game is contained in a folder with the full name of the game,..obviosly much longer then 8 characters,...and what of DOS boxes location?That directory too?

Okay....

MS-DOS (Which DosBox to a degree emulates), only supports 8.3 character filenames and directories.

This means

"12345678.123"

So:

C:\
C:\OLDGAMES
C:\OLDGAMES\ULTIMA1

You can use longer than 8.3 character filenames/directories with DosBox.....BUT DosBox will shorten these filenames/directories to 8.3 chatacter filenames and directories soooo...

C:\ILOVELONGFILENAMES\

would be
C:\ILOVEL~1\ in DosBox.

Now if you know what your doing this is fine....but if you don't know much about DOS and are easily confused then it is MUCH easier to simply use 8.3 character filenames and to use a DosBox GUI such as D-FEND.

Finally, a space counts as a character too....and if you must use long filenames and spaces then you should definetly put quotations around them:

Ex:
mount c "d:\IlovelongfilenamesbecauseIamanoobandIknownobetter\yes I really am\"

😁

About filenames:

DOS only knows 8 characters plus 3 characters after the dot (the extension). Ever wondered why almost all files you see have exactly 3 chars after the dot? That's why.

In theory, you can use longer filenames, but DOSBox needs to garble them in order to squeeze them into 8 chars. Windows XP also garbles filenames in some places - after all, it has some degree of DOS still built-in. But both work differently, so to avoid any troubles:

Use file and directory names of at most 8 characters, plus maximum 3 chars for the extension. And as you already guessed: no spaces.

That applies to files accessed _within_ dosbox, not dosbox itself or any other files. Put your DOS games into c:\oldgames\ or similar, and you are safe. (Example for ultima: c:\oldgames\ultima4\)

As HunterZ already mentioned, it is very strange that "d:" results in a "Z:\>" prompt. Try to find out why - if D is mounted correctly, "d:" should yield a "D:\>" prompt. Fix that first, because the rest cannot work on Z:.

Hmm,...the 8 character thing seems to have done the trick,...I changed all but one folder to 8 characters and it started up on the first try.Not sure if I had to do as many as i did but figure it couldn't hurt

Yes well it seems to be the name game that caused the error cause it worked as soon as I shortened the names,..so thanks for the help.I am still a little confused to why it happened though because the directories while not all with the the path were that long most were not much different then what they had in the error.anyhow,...now I know though
thanks again

And of course there still is the question to why other long named directories work for instance Ultima 2-Revenge of the Enchantress works fine and thats even longer

Depends. Could be Windows...could be DosBox.

If you really want to look into it then surf around in the Command Prompt and use the "Dir /x" command. The /x shows the 8.3 character filenames.

Most likely there are ~2, ~3, ~4...etc.